He went to the back window. It was locked and barred. Of course it was. In his hurry DogNut hadn’t registered it before when he’d looked out. This was a very rich part of town and the houses were plastered with security to keep burglars out.

‘This is no good,’ said Felix, joining him. ‘All the other windows is gonna be the same.’

‘We could try and break the locks,’ said Marco.

‘Too much noise, dumb-ass,’ said Felix. ‘They’ll hear us out there and break in before we could get this lot even half off.’

‘You got a better idea, wasteman?’

‘Why ain’t it so dark out the back?’ DogNut interrupted before they could get into another one of their pointless arguments.

‘What d’you mean?’ asked Felix.

‘There’s more light here than at the front.’

‘Shut up,’ said Courtney.

‘I’m only saying –’

‘Shut up and listen!’

‘What?’

‘Just shut up, will you!’

They all fell silent. It was then that they became aware of a strange rasping, gurgling sound, like some old piece of machinery ticking over.

‘What is it?’ said Olivia. She had to get out of here. She was going to faint. She knew she was. She was so frightened she was going to throw up any second now.

‘Central heating maybe?’ said Marco. ‘A boiler or something.’

‘How could anyone be running a boiler, you moron?’ said Felix.

‘I don’t know …’

‘It seems to be coming from over by the front door,’ said Courtney.

They listened again. The sound was closer than they had first thought.

Or else it had moved closer.

‘There’s something there,’ said Felix.

‘I don’t want to see it,’ Olivia wailed.

‘Put your torch back on, man,’ said Marco.

‘I can’t risk it,’ said DogNut.

‘We have to see what that is,’ said Courtney, in such a way that DogNut knew he had no choice.

He took out his torch again. His hand was shaking so uncontrollably that he was worried he might drop it. He held his breath and snapped the light back on.

For a moment the kids couldn’t make sense of what they were seeing.

And then DogNut understood that it hadn’t grown completely dark out the front. There was someone in the hallway, blocking the light.

Someone huge.

A man.

He completely filled the gap between the piles of newspaper and was staring at them with yellow-rimmed eyes.

He was monstrously fat, with two great naked legs like tree trunks. He was wearing a pair of shorts with no shoes or socks and the remains of a vast sweatshirt that was ripped and full of holes. Barely able to contain his obscene bulk, the sweatshirt cut into his body like the string round a trussed-up chicken ready for roasting. Fat bulged out of the holes and his vast belly hung down over the top of his shorts.

He had great pendulous breasts and his hair was long and matted, with bits of food stuck in it. If it wasn’t for the straggly beard that framed his bulbous, sweating face they might have mistaken him for a woman. His skin was so dirty it looked black; his eyes stared out brightly, like the eyes of a coal-miner. There was snot streaming from his nose and into his half-open mouth. The noise they had heard was his breath rattling in his throat.

‘Stuff …’ he said. ‘Stuff …’

19

Courtney psyched herself up and ran at the giant with a roar, her spear aimed at his juddering belly, but he swatted it aside and the point stuck fast in the wall of newspaper. Courtney swore and abandoned it. As the man advanced on her she thumped him with her forearm. The blow bounced harmlessly off him, sending a ripple through his upper body.

‘Stuff …’ he said again, his voice squeezed into a wheezy high-pitched croak. He looked to be in his late twenties and he stank powerfully. He didn’t look badly diseased. There were a few spots on his face, but no major boils or sores. There was green mould growing on him, though, in all the folds and creases of his exposed flesh.

‘Stuff …’

As he moved along the hallway his sides rubbed against the walls of newspaper, making a rustling sound. Felix darted past Courtney and clumsily jabbed at him with his sword, but the blow was lost in the layers of fat.

DogNut ran through their choices. Stay here and try to fight the monster, try to push past him towards the front door, retreat into the basement with its maze of newsprint, or go upstairs. This last option seemed the safest choice, even though they had no idea what might be up there.

The giant plodded on, slow and steady, repeating the same word over and over.

‘Stuff … stuff … stuff …’

DogNut stared at him and his mind was filled with one stupid thought, the one that Courtney had planted in his brain. This man could overwhelm them.

‘Upstairs!’ he yelled. ‘Now.’

He charged at the waddling hulk, hoping to hold him back long enough for his friends to reach the stairs. He hacked uselessly with his sword; there wasn’t enough space for a full swing. And having seen what happened when Felix and Courtney attacked him, DogNut was scared to jab him with the point in case he lost his weapon. As it was, his blade did little against the sicko except split his skin. The fat that swelled out of the superficial wound was bright pink against his dark skin.

DogNut turned and joined his friends, who were scrambling up the stairs. The last to make it was Olivia, and even then DogNut had to grab her by the arm and jerk her away from the approaching sicko.

They clattered upwards, hoping to find a room they could get in and barricade. Behind them they could hear the sicko place his fat foot on the first step with an almighty thud.

‘More stuff …’

The rooms on the next floor were too crammed with junk to even get in. Electrical appliances, mostly, and computer hardware, monitors, keyboards, hard drives and miles and miles of cable. DogNut swore and ordered the gang up to the next floor. It was a similar story here, except that most of the junk consisted of toys of some sort, many still in their packaging. They were mixed up with other bits and pieces, sporting equipment, expensive luggage, clothing and more books.

‘Maybe we could get on to the roof, or something,’ said Courtney. ‘Let’s try the top floor. We can always come back down again.’

‘I don’t want to go up!’ Olivia screamed. ‘I want to get out of here. We’ll be trapped.’

‘We’ll be all right,’ said DogNut. ‘We’ll get out. Don’t worry.’ He grabbed her arm again and roughly pulled her up the stairs. They could hear the steady clump, clump of the man coming after them.

They thundered up to the next level. It immediately looked more hopeful. It was still full of rubbish – carrier bags, cardboard boxes, more toys, empty bottles and cans – but there was a lot more room to move around. Obviously, being so heavy, and not too keen on climbing stairs, the huge sicko was filling the house from the bottom up.

The room at the back had a small balcony overlooking the garden. Felix and Marco stayed to secure the door to the stairs while the rest of them went over to the sliding glass balcony windows and figured out how to open them.

Felix found a key in the bedroom door just as Courtney opened the latch that released the sliding windows, and they both yelled in triumph at the same time. There was a rush of clean fresh air and the kids were reminded just how badly the house stank. Finn, Olivia, Courtney and DogNut hustled out on to the balcony and looked down. They were five floors up.

‘Can we climb it?’ Courtney asked.

‘I can’t,’ said Finn bluntly, and he shook his head. ‘I’ll stay here and try to hold him off, if you lot want to try and climb down.’

DogNut was looking at the long drop.

‘We don’t need no heroic sacrifices, Finn. What we need’s a bloody ladder.’

‘I can’t do it either,’ said Olivia. ‘I can’t climb. I can’t do it. I’m scared of heights. I can’t. I won’t.’